Brain scans

In Michel Gondry’s 2004 movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Jim Carrey’s protagonist undergoes a brain-training technique to erase the painful memories he has after splitting from his girlfriend. Could a similar technology be used in real life not to eradicate Kate Winslet from your memory (although we wouldn’t mind losing the dreadful Movie 43), but rather to remove phobias from the brain?That’s a question a team of neuroscientists from the U.K., Japan, and the United States have been attempting to answer. They’ve developed a tentative technique with real time brain-scanning technology and AI pattern recognition tools that can monitor fear-memory activity in the brain and replace it with positive feelings.“We’re trying to find methods of changing brain activity in smart and non-invasive ways,” Dr. Ben Seymour, a member of the University of Cambridge’s Engineering Department, told Digital Trends. “Our target in … [Read more...] about Crazy new brain-scanning technique may help identify, ‘overwrite’ your phobias

Neuroscientists around the world are trying to uncover the secrets of the brain by studying images of it. That’s no easy task — the human brain is arguably the most sophisticated thing in existence and it has proven difficult to decipher. But a team of researchers have found that brain images reveal whether someone committed a crime knowingly or recklessly. It may seem like a small distinction but it could have a significant impact in the courtroom.The United States Model Penal Code considers criminal culpability through the lens of a suspect’s awareness and intentions. Someone who knew they were acting against the law is subject to stricter penalties than someone who didn’t. More precisely, a suspect’s actions are considered on a scale of severity that includes purposeful, knowing, reckless, and negligent.“People can commit exactly the same crime in all of its elements and circumstances, and depending on their mental states, the difference … [Read more...] about Neuroscientists can tell if you knowingly committed a crime based on brain scans

IQ tests are so last decade. Now, if you really want to know how smart you are (and be warned, some things are better left undiscovered), you should probably get an fMRI scan. A new study published in Nature suggests that not only is your brain activity about as unique as your fingerprint, but also reveals some pretty compelling evidence as to how smart you are. As it turns out, some brains really are just better than others in that they’re wired more efficiently and more effectively.In conducting their study, researchers examined the fMRI scans of 126 human subjects and attempted to predict their success on motor, memory and intelligence tests. Key to their predictions were the brain’s connectomes, which refers to how different areas of the brain communicate with one another. Over the last five years, the Human Connectome Project has attempted to map out exactly how synapses fire and “talk” to one another, and as it … [Read more...] about How smart are you, really? A quick fMRI brain scan will tell you

Neuroscientists and researchers from the world of high-energy physics have developed the world’s first wearable PET scanner — making it possible to analyze the inner functions of the brain while subjects are on the go. It is hoped that the technology will allow for in-depth investigations to be carried out into both people with exceptional talents and also those with degenerative brain disorders like Parkinson’s disease and dementia.“The brain is absolutely amazing,” Dr. Stan Majewski, co-investigator on the project and a faculty member in the Department of Radiology and Medical Imaging at the University of Virginia, told Digital Trends. “There’s so much about it that we don’t understand. For example, it’s fascinating to hear about savants: people with incredible capabilities in particular areas, like memory or mathematics. There are also cases where people have been involved in accidents and have emerged with particular … [Read more...] about Mobile brain-scanning helmet will allow subjects to be studied while on the go

Through a study using brain scanning technology called "functional magnetic resonance imaging," which records mental activity, neuroscientists at the University of California at Berkeley have gained greater insight into how the human brain "sees" objects.The researchers used fMRI modeling of how subjects responded to various images as the basis for predicting their responses to new images, according to an article published in the peer review publication Nature.Two people were shown 1,750 different pictures as they were monitored by fMRI. The team then used the subjects' earlier brain responses to predict what their responses would be to 120 as yet unseen images. The modeling was accurate 72 percent of the time with one subject, and 92 percent of the time with another, according to the Nature report.What excites the scientific and medical communities is what this study may lead to. The immediate next step, according to the researchers, is to identify what image a person is looking at … [Read more...] about Brain-Scanning Tech May Reveal Mind’s Secrets

A devastating chronic neurodegenerative disease, Alzheimer’s disease (AD) currently affects around 5.5 million people in the United States alone. Causing progressive mental deterioration, it ultimately advances to impact basic bodily functions such as walking and swallowing.Looking for a way to help, researchers at the University of Bari and Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare in Italy have developed new machine learning AI technology that may help identify Alzheimer’s a decade before doctors usually can, by way of non-invasive MRI brain scans. An early diagnosis — before any of the symptoms a doctor might recognize become apparent — could give patients a chance to make changes to their lifestyle which may slow Alzheimer’s progression.“We used publicly available data, consisting of 67 brain MRI scans from the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative, including healthy controls and AD patients,” Nicola Amoroso, one of the … [Read more...] about AI being used to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease early by reviewing brain scans

Informatics “Mind Reading” Brain Scans Reveal Secrets of Human Vision"Mind reading" scans show that, to our brains, a sparse line drawing of a street scene is almost as recognizable as a detailed color photograph. Researchers call it mind reading. One at a time, they show a volunteer – who's resting in an MRI scanner – a series of photos of beaches, city streets, forests, highways, mountains and offices. The subject looks at the photos, but says nothing.The researchers, however, can usually tell which photo the volunteer is watching at any given moment, aided by sophisticated software that interprets the signals coming from the scan. They glean clues not only by noting what part of the brain is especially active, but also by analyzing the patterns created by the firing neurons. They call it decoding. Now, psychologists and computer scientists at Stanford, Ohio State University and the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign have taken mind reading a … [Read more...] about “Mind Reading” Brain Scans Reveal Secrets of Human Vision

Life Sciences In this photo taken July 12, 2017, Cynthia Guzman walks through a garden outside her home in Napa, Calif. Guzman underwent a special kind of PET scan that can detect a hallmark of Alzheimer’s and learned she didn’t have that disease as doctors originally thought, but a different form of dementia. New research suggests those scans may lead to changes in care for people with memory problems that are hard to diagnose. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg) Does it really take an expensive brain scan to diagnose Alzheimer’s? Not everybody needs one but new research suggests that for a surprising number of patients whose memory problems are hard to pin down, PET scans may lead to changes in treatment.The findings, reported Wednesday, mark a first peek at a huge study under way to help determine if Medicare should start paying for specialized PET scans that find a hallmark of Alzheimer’s — a sticky plaque called amyloid.Alzheimer’s is the most common … [Read more...] about Brain Scans May Change Care For Some People With Memory Loss

Life Sciences Researchers at MIT's Picower Institute for Learning and Memory have shown for the first time that star-shaped brain cells called astrocytes--previously considered bit players by most neuroscientists—make noninvasive brain scans possible. Imaging techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) have transformed neuorscience, providing colorful maps of brain activity in living subjects. The scans' reds, oranges, yellows and blues represent changes in blood flow and volume triggered by neural activity. But until the MIT study, reported in Science, no one knew exactly why this worked."Why blood flow is linked to neuronal activity has been a mystery," said study co-author Mriganka Sur, Sherman Fairchild Professor of Neuroscience and head of the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT. "Previously, people have argued that the fMRI signal reports local field potentials or waves of incoming electrical activity, … [Read more...] about Astrocytes Shown to Play Role in Noninvasive Brain Scans

A new procedure is expected to boost the quality of brain scans so that they can be used to see how strokes impact different people in large-scale studies.Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), as well as doctors from several institutions, including Massachusetts General Hospital, have created the new method that will enable researchers to better see how genetic factors influence stroke survival and how patients respond to treatment.“These images are quite unique because they are acquired in routine clinical practice when a patient comes in with a stroke,” Polina Golland, an MIT professor of electrical engineering and computer science, said in a statement. “You couldn't stage a study like that.”Images from current scans are often too low in resolution for researchers to analyze the effects of strokes. Scans take images rapidly due to limited scanning time, which results in image slices taken about five-to-seven millimeters apart.In … [Read more...] about Building a Better Brain Scan